PRESS RELEASE, March 10th, 2021: Working with Representative Zach Hudson, the Equal Vote Coalition is excited to announce a STAR Voting bill for the 2021 Oregon Legislative Session. House Bill 3250 would establish STAR Voting as the default voting method for the State of Oregon. The bill would also permit STAR Voting to be used in local elections or multi-winner elections, and eliminate primaries for non-partisan races.

"I am excited about what this bill can do for Oregon's voting system, and look forward to working with its broad, passionate base of advocates,” remarked Representative Hudson.

Oregon is a longtime leader in voting reform, and STAR (Score, Then Automatic Runoff) Voting is the state’s next step forward. STAR Voting was invented in Oregon and is better and simpler than other voting methods, including both Ranked Choice Voting and our current Plurality method.

“Our current 'Choose-One-Only Plurality' voting method works fine when races have only two candidates, or only two parties. But as soon as a 3rd party steps up, or if there is a competitive primary with more than two candidates, our current election process is plagued by vote splitting and spoilers, leaving many feeling unrepresented,” remarked Sara Wolk, Executive Director of the Equal Vote Coalition. “STAR Voting simply and effectively solves these problems."

STAR Voting is already used in Oregon; in 2020 STAR Voting was used by the Multnomah County Democratic Party for its internal elections, the Independent Party of Oregon primary race, and the Democratic Party of Oregon for selecting their presidential election delegates. STAR Voting is currently the subject of three ballot initiatives around the state for local adoption efforts.

Learn more: starvoting.us contact: [email protected]